Perth and Kinross Council has been urged to sell the Provost’s chauffeur-driven car and private licence plate and use the cash to fund front-line services.

The local authority shelled out at least £53,000 for Provost Liz Grant’s black Audi back in 2014 and it’s understood the car’s ES 1 number plate could fetch up to at least £150,000 at auction.

PKC insists the Provost’s arrival at public events in the Audi creates “a sense of occasion and civic pride” and “can add to the stature of the event and the public perception of the area’s standing”.

But critics say the car and its private plate is a luxury the council cannot afford at a time when its budget has been slashed and that the money would be better spent on public services.

Cameron Buchanan, spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “Council chiefs should be looking at tightening their belts after the SNP’s devastating budget announcement of more cuts to local government.”

“While special number plates like these can be seen as community assets,they suggest an attitude of grandness that is really rather old-fashioned today.”

PKC’s spend on the Provost’s car was uncovered by Kinross man Ken Miles, who wrote to Ms Grant last year to ask why she had to be chauffeured to the opening of a new Marks and Spencer Simply Food store near the town.

He wrote to Ms Grant at the time: “I noted that you arrived in a chauffeur driven [car], a top of the range Audi saloon, I believe.

“I am sure I am not alone in finding this situation unacceptable given that such a considerable amount of money is tied-up in providing luxury and very ostentatious transport for yourself to relatively mundane events.”

Mr Miles went on to ask Ms Grant what PKC had paid for the car and how much her chauffeurs cost.

He was told that the car had cost £44,039 plus VAT and that in 2014/15 council officers racked up 245 hours of civic driving time equating to an average staff cost of £3205 for chauffeuring duties.

Mr Miles told the PA yesterday: “Given that Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson and David Cameron are happy to be seen going about their business on pedal cycles it seems to me it is more than an excessive indulgence for the Provost of one of Scotland’s smallest councils to be swanning around in a chauffeur driven [car] with pennant flying.

“If those senior political figures were to be seen in cars sporting such expensive number plates as the Provost and PKC do, I am sure there would be a public outcry.

“So I think the Provost - a minor appointee - should follow their lead and go about her business in a modest and sustainable manner - a reasonable point that I am sure would have the support of the vast majority of the public.”

A PKC spokeswoman said: “It is accepted that there will always be criticism in using public money on a civic car.

“However, there is also a public expectation of a sense of occasion and civic pride in the Provost of Perth and Kinross arriving at an event in a chauffeur driven car, with the civic flag flying.

“There is a view that it can add to the stature of the event and the public perception of the area’s standing, especially in light of Perth taking its place nationally as Scotland’s newest City.”